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You’re taking down the Christmas lights when it hits you like never before.

YOUCH!

Your shoulder’s barking like there’s a pack of hounds trapped inside ñ and those lights are going to have to stay right where they are for now.

In most cases, a little rest and maybe a couple of days of ice followed by a couple more of heat should get you back in shape and ready take on those lights.

But if your shoulder was already a little sore before… if that pain is just a little too familiar… if you’ve been battling on-and-off shoulder pain for any period of time… you may have something else going on.

And the problem might not be in your shoulder at all.

It could be in your HEART!

Sudden and sharp pain in the shoulder or arm of course are classic heart attack signs.

But OTHER kinds of pain could mean OTHER kinds of risk ñ and if you’ve got regular aches and ouches in the shoulder, you might have heart disease or be at risk for the condition even if your doc has never so much as mentioned it.

In short, the more heart disease risk factors you have, the more likely you’ll have shoulder pain.

In the new study, folks with the highest heart risk were 4.6 times more likely to battle those aches than folks who had no sign of heart problems. All those heart risks even made them SIX TIMES more likely to battle rotator cuff tendinopathy.

That’s just what sounds like, pain in the tissue that connects the muscle to your shoulder ñ but you may know it better as a collection of the four-letter words you utter when it rears its ugly head.

Folks with even “moderate” levels of the risk factors for heart disease were up to three times more likely to battle shoulder pain, according to the new study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Obviously, taking part in the study, these folks got checked for heart problems AND shoulder problems.

The rest of us aren’t so lucky, especially if we’re the kind who don’t always go to the doctor when something’s wrong (and you know who you are).

So, if you have shoulder pain and it never quite goes away ñ or it does, but then comes back ñ don’t assume it’s because of aging, a tough job, or an old injury.

It could be your first sign of heart disease, and that means this is your best chance of stopping it. Get help before it’s too late.

That’s not the only link between pain and heart risk. I’ll have more on this tomorrow, so keep an eye on your inbox!

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